Into the Wild

Today was worth waiting for. Ever since Karen and I went to the chain of lakes starting at Bear Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park before Thanksgiving last year I have yearned to go back to one of the most beautiful places in the world. This was my chance and I took it.

We had brilliant sun and warmer weather today. But the snow up there around 10,000 feet was still more than a foot deep all the way. The trail was often steep, by far the most difficult snowshoe hike I have ever made. But the four hours I spent on the trail today seemed to fly by.
I hiked around Bear Lake and even over it. Walking on water isn’t as hard to do as it’s made out to be. Then I hiked on to Nymph Lake, and walked on it too. But this photo is from where I found the one place on the entire trail free of snow, a bench with this wonderful view.

Nymph Lake

But one track that I followed to Dream Lake was of nightmare steepness. So I turned around, but soon found a somewhat better track.

At Dream Lake

The large herds of elk that were often close by in the summer have generally moved away — somewhere, I know not where. But on the way back from the mountains today I found them.

Elk

Last night I started watching the DVD of Sean Pean’s new movie, “Into the Wild,” about a headstrong young man who went to live in the wilds of Alaska and died there. Years ago I had read the book by my Boulder neighbor Jon Krakauer on which the movie is based; the book is much better.

I like nothing better than going into the wild. But sanely.

You might think from my regular trip reports that all I do is go to the mountains. Unfortunately, I still have to work. And promote my book, as I did at the diabetes support group at Boulder Community Hospital a couple of nights ago. I sold three more copies.

Pitching My Byetta Book

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